NoCigarette; Love the Magnum! Great proportions.

Picking the right tunnel ram (+doing mods if necessary) along with proper carb choice + tuning is critical.

You miss any of these and blah. I feel this is why TR's have a certain bad rap - you know, the 'bolt it on and go' syndrome that praises / craps on many hp parts.

Ptu them in the hands of a great tuner that can correctly spec parts - like a handful of people/builders here - and you can really make some majic.

Just don't listen to the guy with an 86 Trans Am with a stock motor and a tunnel ram sticking out of the hood saying they are junk. Sorry - had to say that. Seen way to many of these this way. LOL.

but with so many variations of engines now days, it would be great if the was a "place to start" Rule of thumb.

I got lucky, but that was many engine designs ago.

At the moment the shop owner and I will keep things close to the vest. If we decide to roll out a program for marine engines we'll let you know. The shop has a 30 yr history, not fly by night.

Sounds like a really "top secret" shop with an invisable name...that's too bad. I know alot of engine builders in Michigan that's the only reason I asked Wannabe.

So true. I have run tunnel rams on my street and race cars for the last 20+ years with much success. Many people ask me how to make a tunnel ram set up work. It is all in the carbs and tuning. The manifold doesn't make a set up good or bad. I do try to use a manifold with the longest runners I can to boost torque.
Here's a picture of the tunnel ram set up on my street car. It took quite a bit of carb work to make this set up streetable.

I hear you and I am certainly no expert---just my opinion and trying to look at it a bit from a consumer's point of view I guess.

Any of you guys looking to build a couple tunnel ram motors, I have some nice parts and would like to talk to you. You can pm me or check the classifieds.

I am so fed up with marine EFI and all the sensors.

Carbs next time, for sure.

At any price, fuel is the cheapest part of owning a boat. So the story about EFI having better fuel efficiency is not compelling.

And it probably false in a boat too: the engine is going to burn a specific mixture of air to fuel, no matter what the source of fuel and air. The fuel rate is a great indicator of horsepower.

Now in a car, where you are going up or down hills, freeway or stop-n-go, winter and summer, etc, and the engine and all the wiring never gets washed in salt water and sailt air, then EFI is the way to go.

But the big problem is all those sensors: every sensor feeds into the engine computer. The computer then adjusts everything. If every sensor and ever actuator and the computer and all the wires and every connector are all as new, then its wonderful. But if ANYTHING gets flakey, then any symptom can be the result. Try tracking that down!

With carbs, its easy: if the problem is ignition, check the distributor, coil, plugs, coil. If the problem is fuel, check the carb and pump and maybe the jets and filter. Very direct from problem to solution.

With EFI, if something goes wrong, it can be ANYTHING or EVERYTHING. Good luck.

with efi you still ck the same things as a carb,but you need a scanner or a laptop[which most of us allready own] i can most times ck an efi problem as fast or faster then a carb,the scanner just gives you more info faster,which usually helps

I believe you................but.....I just paid $629 for a cam sensor repair on my truck.

And some of these marine injections are proprietary(or more "custom") than the auto production engine EFI's.